She never felt sorry for herself, and that was something I decided I admired most in people.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said. You got that right," I told him.

I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it